Europa Colony 4836

March 2018

This is a PVP (person vs. person) room! In our case, we went with two teams of three and one team won (it was not the team Jason and I were on lol!). Our opponents finished the room with about 13 minutes left and they had a little hiccup so they were very quick!

Challenge level:

Lamya – This is a cool room! PVP rooms always have a different layer to them because ideally, it should be about WHO wins and not IF someone wins. This room seems like it should have a winner every time. That’s not to say it’s easy, but it’s not crazy hard either (says the person whose team literally got stumped for close to 10 minutes by a totally visible clue we just “forgot” about!). You can also decide to up the challenge level on this room by both teams agreeing not to use hints, which is a fun way to raise the stakes. And choose your teams wisely because working together is really important!

Jason – The challenge of this room is two-fold. You have the challenge of the puzzles in the room itself and then you have the challenge of trying to beat the team you’re up against. This is only the second PVP team vs. team style room in Edmonton right now and GTFO’s room is the only one with a story line to go with it that may add to your overall enjoyment of the room. The PVP at Breakout East was a lot of fun but it was just a series of challenges and didn’t have that story element. It was still a very good room. Now, Lamy and I both did TERRIBLY in this room because we got completely stuck on something that we should have noticed immediately. Notice a theme with our room experiences? Yep. But we still got to finish the room and all the challenges are doable and not terribly difficult. They all take teamwork and communication skills and if you work well under pressure you should be able to knock off the challenges at a steady clip.

Creativity:

Lamya – This is the second spaceship-themed room we’d done in a month so the theme isn’t anything new, and the room is cool but basic. I would say the creativity comes in the challenge against the other team and the way that’s set up, as well as the ending, which is infinitely better than most escape room endings (see more about that below!).

Jason – Spaceships! Technically this is a space station theme but whatever. It looks good and the puzzles have great variety. Design quality is always high at GTFO and the sensory details added to this room are a great touch. The light and sound is mostly what I’m talking about. It always helps you feel more immersed in the experience. GTFO also gets full marks for taking on the PVP experience which really adds to the variety of experiences you can have there.

Wow Factor:

Lamya – There’s definitely some wow factor here! I don’t think it’s giving too much away to say that for you to experience it, you’ll have to be the winning team. Because we weren’t, the guys at GTFO were nice enough to let our 2nd place team (lol) experience the ending, which is a sensory experience I really haven’t had in any other escape room! Super cool and even more incentive to win!

Jason – Nothing that made me go WOW in particular but just a lot of fun stuff to see and do in this room. If we didn’t spend 20 minutes focused on the completely wrong thing I would have had even more fun in this room. Lamya is correct that if you are the winning team you will get an extra bonus, which shows that GTFO is always adding those little details to improve your escape room experience.

Overall :

Lamya – We’ve basically known from the first room we ever did at GTFO that the rooms here are great, every one of them regardless of theme or difficulty level, and this room is no exception. It’s well done and shows you something different from the other rooms here. It’s a great challenge and fun competition with your friends and family!

Jason – When you go to GTFO you are going to have a good time. It’s pretty much a guarantee. Every room is thoughtfully designed and well-executed and this room is no exception. The PVP style room is great for groups that have done a lot of escape rooms together. It lets you compete against your friends instead of working together all the time. It really adds to the drama of the whole experience. I think there’s a pretty good chance that not a lot of people in Edmonton have tried a PVP room so this would be a perfect time to try one. Europa Colony is a fun escape room experience and offers something a little different. I definitely recommend trying it out.